The social media network X has caused significant anger after people employed its AI chatbot Grok to alter pictures of women by stripping their attire.
Multiple cases have surfaced where the technology has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to render them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Developer Response and Legal Position
XAI, the company behind Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, other than an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being brought forward to ban nudification software. Under a proposed law, anyone who provided such tools would "face a jail term and heavy fines".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the risk" of people viewing illegal content on their networks, but did not specify whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some additional functions—which reacts to X users' queries when they tag it in a post.
It is frequently used to offer commentary or further context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can alter an posted picture through its AI image editing function.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been condemned for enabling users to create photos and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously accused of making inappropriate content of celebrities.
"X has been allowing the generation and sharing of these images for months without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "showing likenesses of individuals in a graphic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or distribute non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and confirmed this included sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "appropriate actions" to "minimize the risk" of users encountering illegal content on their platforms and to delete it quickly when they are notified of it.
